Interviewed one of the kampung kali code village mural painting stuff for free-smoking- Benk Riyadi, who is 37 years old come from surakarta, Indonesia.
He come to the Yogyakarta for 2 years, Kampung kali code village, to painting the mural.He joined one of the organization for anti-smoking, cultural organization- NGO.
He mentioned that is is hard to quit and to do anti-smoking in Yogyakarta.When we asked him when he bought the cigarettes, he said he bought from shop, factory or individual, kretek.(Indonesian cigarettes brand), Producing the cigarettes give the jobs for Indonesian people, which is good for Indonesia economic.
In Indonesia, he mentioned it is very normal to smoking everywhere, and parts from that, smoking could make people who lived in mountains body warm. For normal children, it is hard to anti-smoking for them because selling cigarettes could make money for them. And children starts to smoking when they are young to they grow up.
He mentioned before the Kampung kali code village starts the campaign, there is a big cigarettes product called “Sampoerna”. The village is used to be dirty before and the company donates the money to village cleaned up and for us to painting the Sampoerna the typical color to painting on the mural. They painting the blue and yellow on the roof, as the free advertising for the cigarette company. Apart from that there is a 3 months expire time for the company to do the painting as free advertising.
Benk Riyadi said he like the job of free painting on the village mural.In the political Indonesia, the people just use the one time for 5 years, the president will forget the promise for campaign.
They first say the anti-smoking campaign to the educated person. In Indonesia if you want to fight with other party, you should have your own party. Democratic seems important to the Indonesia policy apply.
He said if the person who worked in the Indonesia cigarette factory will be more paid than the other job in Indonesia, especially the big cigarette brands like: Sampoerna A, Dji Sam Soe, Kretek, U mild, Marlboro etc.
One of the reasons as to why Indonesia has the highest smoking rate in the world is because anti-smoking programs rarely work there. There are many government and non-government initiatives meant to curb smoking in this county, but the problem still persists. Therefore, the next time you plan an anti-smoking program for the Indonesian, make sure it is convincing enough because there are higher chances that it will not have effects.
The reasons for the constant failure of such programs is that it is hard for the Indonesians to stop smoking. Among the Indonesians, smoking is considered a fancy thing as the Americans consider drinking (Andrikus, 2014). Therefore, telling an Indonesian to stop smoking is like telling him/her that he/she should not have fun.
Unlike in other places of the world, it is very normal for an Indonesian of any age or sex to smoke anywhere. For this reason, an Indonesian can light a cigarette anywhere without considering whether here are non-smokers around. Indonesians who do not smoke also have no problem when people smoke around them since smoking is not a big deal. What is worse is that a child is also allowed to smoke without anyone asking him/her a question. Therefore, by the time the child grows older, he/she is too much addicted to turn back.
Image by (Brown, 2012)
The Indonesians also can’t stop smoking since tobacco and cigarettes are the greatest economic products in the country. In fact, the idea of smoking being fun was established in the country by large cigarette organizations through advertising and product promotion. For instance, the Sampoerna Cigarette company promoted this idea in Kampung Kali Code Village in Jarkarta by providing free wall and roof painting. The company took advantage of this opportunity by painting resident’s walls with the colors of its cigarette brand. So, whenever a person who benefited from this free painting looks at his wall, he/she remembers that it is Sampoerna that made it possible.
Image from (Baswedan, 2015)
Most Indonesians also rely on either tobacco or cigarette-related activities for income, which means that campaigning against smoking is like campaigning against people’s income. Therefore, the people of this country would not be interested in such campaigns since they make them poor.
What is worse is that children are also major retailers of cigarettes. A child is very vulnerable to using cigarettes if he/she is allowed to sell them. In essence, since a child has a lower capability of making decisions, he/she will be quickly lured into smoking by the curiosity he/she has about it.
In short, it is hard for Indonesians to stop smoking since it has become part of their lives, has become a source of their income, and because smoking does not mean much danger to them as many other societies may see it.
Referencing List
Andrikus, T. 2014, ‘Indonesia: What do most Indonesians think about smoking?’. viewed 11th February 2017, <https://www.quora.com/Indonesia-What-do-most-Indonesians-think-about-smoking>.
Baswedan, A. (2015, July 2). ‘Menyapa Jogjakarta Lewat Cerita Kampung Code’., Bukanrastaman, viewed 11th February 2017, <https://bukanrastaman.com/2015/07/02/menyapa-jogjakarta-lewat-cerita-kampung-code/>.
Brown, M. (2012, June 20). ‘Child smokers prompt Indonesia legal case’. viewed 11th February 2017, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, <http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3529774.html>.
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